1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hermann, Karl Friedrich

HERMANN, KARL FRIEDRICH (1804–1855), German classical scholar and antiquary, was born on the 4th of August 1804, at Frankfort-on-Main. Having studied at the universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig, he went for a tour in Italy, on his return from which he lectured as Privatdozent in Heidelberg. In 1832 he was called to Marburg as professor ordinarius of classical literature; and in 1842 he was transferred to Göttingen to the chair of philology and archaeology, vacant by the death of Otfried Müller. He died at Göttingen on the 31st of December 1855. His knowledge of all branches of classical learning was profound, but he was chiefly distinguished for his works on Greek antiquities and ancient philosophy. Among these may be mentioned the Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitäten (new ed., 1889) dealing with political, religious and domestic antiquities; the Geschichte und System der Platonischen Philosophie (1839), unfinished; an edition of the Platonic Dialogues (6 vols., 1851–1853); and Culturgeschickte der Griechen und Römer (1857–1858), published after his death by C. G. Schmidt. He also edited the text of Juvenal and Persius (1854) and Lucian’s De conscribenda historia (1828). A collection of Abhandlungen und Beiträge appeared in 1849.

See M. Lechner, Zur Erinnerung an K. F. Hermann (1864), and article by C. Halm in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xii. (1880).